Charles V

Carlos de Habsburg (24 February 1500-21 September 1558) was Carlos I of the Spanish Empire from January 1516 to January 1556 and Karl V of the Holy Roman Empire from June 1519 to August 1556. As the son of Duke Philip of Burgundy, who gained the title of King of Castile through marriage to the mentally-instable Castilian queen Juana I of Spain, he was the heir to both the Holy Roman Empire through his paternal grandfather Maximilian I of Germany and the heir to Spain through his mother. Charles V once said "I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse", a witticism referencing his many connections through his bloodlines. He fought against Francis I of France in the Italian Wars (1494-1559) and the Ottoman Empire in the Habsburg-Ottoman Wars (1526-1791).

Biography
Charles of Habsburg was the son of King Philip I of Castile and Queen Juana I of Castile, born in 1500. His mother was the de jure Queen of Spain, but she was mentally-unstable, so his father (born the son of Emperor Maximilian I of the Holy Roman Empire and Duke of Burgundy) became the first Habsburg king of Spain. Upon the death of his mother in 1516, Charles became the King of Spain, and during his reign, he resisted the Kingdom of France's moves in Italy. In 1519 he gained the title of Holy Roman Emperor after the death of his grandfather Maximilian, uniting Spain and the Holy Roman Empire into a huge fusion of the two Habsburg monarchies.

This title was coveted by King Francis I of France, so this brought the Habsburgs and France into warfare. Charles invaded Italy in 1521, conquering Milan, and he won the Battle of Pavia in 1525, crushing France's Italian ambitions. Charles waged war against France for the rest of his life, thwarting Francis' ambitions in Italy. At the same time, he waged war against the Ottoman Empire, repulsing a siege of Vienna in 1527 and conquering Tunis in 1535. Karl V waged war for his whole life, and he abdicated in 1556, living in a monastery until his death two years later.